ue4 build not building plugin in 5.4 and 5.5

[jonpas]

ue4 build or ue4 build Development does not build anything when building a plugin in a 5.4 (or newer) project. In 5.3 and older it works as expected.

$ ue4 version
Using user-specified engine root: /home/ue4/UnrealEngine
5.4.4
$ ue4 build Development
Using user-specified engine root: /home/ue4/UnrealEngine
Setting up bundled DotNet SDK
Running command : dotnet Engine/Binaries/DotNET/UnrealBuildTool/UnrealBuildTool.dll UnrealEditor Linux Development -plugin=/builds/acre/unreal/acre-unreal-plugin/ACREUnreal.uplugin
Log file: /home/ue4/.config/Epic/UnrealBuildTool/Log.txt
Target is up to date

ue4 build DebugGame builds it just fine.
ue4 package also seems to function correctly.

[jonpas]

RunMono.sh and RunXMono.sh don't exist in UnrealEngine/Engine/Build/BatchFiles/Linux/ from 5.4 onwards. The following ue4cli code is expecting them.

ue4cli/ue4cli/UnrealManagerUnix.py

Lines 29 to 39 in fed71c1

	def _getRunMonoScript(self):
	"""
	Determines the location of the script file to run mono
	"""
	return os.path.join(self.getEngineRoot(), 'Engine', 'Build', 'BatchFiles', self.getPlatformIdentifier(), 'RunMono.sh')
	def _getRunXBuildScript(self):
	"""
	Determines the location of the script file to run mono's XBuild tool
	"""
	return os.path.join(self.getEngineRoot(), 'Engine', 'Build', 'BatchFiles', self.getPlatformIdentifier(), 'RunXBuild.sh')

[sleeptightAnsiC]

I haven't touched UE for quite some time but the last time I checked Epic became more vocal about Ushell (which is very similar to ue4cli and should ship with UE git master branch) https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/how-to-use-ushell-for-unreal-engine

Although, I know it may not be very helpful for resolving this issue, I would suggest giving it a try.

The author of ue4cli rarely responds on this repo these days.

[sleeptightAnsiC]

RunMono.sh and RunXMono.sh don't exist in UnrealEngine/Engine/Build/BatchFiles/Linux/ from 5.4 onwards. The following ue4cli code is expecting them.

Seems like this is the UE commit that removed those scripts: https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/commit/3ebc0e1bcf414883b229d6939bd488951eea2f81

[sleeptightAnsiC]

I guess, now we should simply run this: [UnrealEngine]/Engine/Build/BatchFiles/RunDotnet.sh

I don't have a working UE installation so cannot test this at the moment.

[jonpas]

I guess, now we should simply run this: [UnrealEngine]/Engine/Build/BatchFiles/RunDotnet.sh

I don't have a working UE installation so cannot test this at the moment.

./RunDotnet.sh /home/ue4/UnrealEngine/Engine/Binaries/DotNET/UnrealBuildTool/UnrealBuildTool.dll UnrealEditor Linux Development -plugin=/acre-unreal-plugin/ACREUnreal.uplugin

Sadly this has the same result, but running the same thing with GameDebug instead of Development again works.

[jonpas]

./Build.sh UnrealEditor Linux Development -plugin=/acre-unreal-plugin/ACREUnreal.uplugin

Is actually what ue4cli runs when running ue4 build, not RunXBuild.sh

So this seems something internally in UE 5.4+ that is causing it.

[jonpas]

I haven't touched UE for quite some time but the last time I checked Epic became more vocal about Ushell (which is very similar to ue4cli and should ship with UE git master branch) dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/how-to-use-ushell-for-unreal-engine

Although, I know it may not be very helpful for resolving this issue, I would suggest giving it a try.

The author of ue4cli rarely responds on this repo these days.

I don't see anything in ushell that allows building or packaging plugins, as it cannot locate the Unreal context.

[jonpas]

5.6 and 5.7 build correctly with the exact same command.

Something is off only in 5.4 and 5.5.

[jonpas]

I have now solved this by removing /home/ue4/.config/Unreal\ Engine/UnrealBuildTool/BuildConfiguration.xml in the Unreal Docker image.

It is only a problem in 5.4 and 5.5 images, and the problem seems to be invalidation of Makefiles or rather generation of UBT Makefiles (doing ue4 build -gather also forces the plugin to build).

I am not sure if a fix should be deployed ue4cli as well.